The Steel Guitar Forum

I was born, raised and trained a precision machine engineer in Switzerland.
I must have been around 10 years old when my mother took me to the city of Neuchatel to the Museum Of The Automates... you could say, the museum of he early "Robots".
I was so deeply impressed by it..., -don't forget, I saw it in the mid 70's.... robots only went alive on movies and looked only mildly amusing!-, I never could forget what I had seen.

So, recently I researched it on YouTube and I thought today, this would be the place an time to post it, because it is HUMBLING to see what they build in the late 17-hundreds, which still is AWE-some and still functioning TODAY.

So, if you ever thought your steel guitar brand is so "awesome" and ahead of it's time... here is what Jacques Droz and the Amstutz Bros. built around 1772:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz8lB3y5euk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTOqDb-86s

Imagine these Cats, had been given a Hawaiian steel guitar and a pair of Coat Hangers!... And what we would be playing today, if they had!

... J-D.

WOW…There’s nothing else I can say!
The second video is a must see for anyone that’s ever built, wanted to build, or even played a pedal steel. And they didn’t have a forum to get ideas from, and I couldn’t begin to describe any of it. But you owe it to yourselves to check this out. I like one line the guy says, “The mechanism is extremely accurate.” That’s for sure.
Thanks J D

Wow! Amazing especially for that time period...

They are really amazing.
I saw a documentary in english a few years ago about some automata. I'm not sure if it is on YouTube.
Someday I would love to see some in real life.

WOW! Who knew?
Thanks for sharing

Whenever I get to feeling proud of something I've built I think of Archimedes, Euclid, that Greek antikythera, Roman hydraulic concrete... Now you show me an 18th century automaton with involute toothed bevel gears and spiral chain compensating drive, cam motion control... I feel like a toddler playing in a sandbox.

Robert B Murphy wrote:Whenever I get to feeling proud of something I've built I think of Archimedes, Euclid, that Greek antikythera, Roman hydraulic concrete... Now you show me an 18th century automaton with involute toothed bevel gears and spiral chain compensating drive, cam motion control... I feel like a toddler playing in a sandbox.

Wow! That was incredible to watch! Thanks!

Wow! Simultaneously amazing and creepy.

Thank you for posting the video links. Somehow I missed your post.

~Lee

Thanks so much for posting this. Truly incredibile! This puts a perspective on pedal steel mechanics right along those of the sledge hammer.